Thanks for the info, Clint.
Ya, the processor i have is an Athlon XP 2000. I have it in a Gigabyte MB
that i know supports it. Its true speed is 1.6874653, give or take a few
digits. I bought the ASUS MB thinking i could put a faster processor in it
until i saw the board number and went to their site. Ya, AMD has a Palamino,
Thunderbird, and maybe a couple other names for their processors as you
refered to.
According to ASUS, the very first POST screen will list, up towards the
top, a line that says
American Megatrends, Inc Bios Version XXXX
I've actually been looking pretty hard at just a 1.2 or a 1.333 (1.3 without
the extra 3's is a 200 FSB) for the board knowing that they would work. As
you suggested, i'd probably never know the difference in speed, but i
thought, what the heck, if i can use a 1.4 and come across one cheap, i'd
just put that in. The board does support DDR ram and I have some of the 266
stuff so i need a processor that supports that also. AMD has 2 versions of
the 1.2 so i need to be sure I get the right one. They have about an 8 digit
model number that ends with a letter thats supposed to tell you which one
you have. As far as i know, a "B" is a 200 mhz FSB and a "C" is a 266. I
dont know that thats 100% accurate though.
Roger
----- Original Message -----
From: "Support-OrpheusComputing.com" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Friday, March 19, 2004 8:14 AM
Subject: Re: PCWorks: BIOS Revision number
Heck I'm a nut case half the time....maybe more! Hee hee.
I flash mobo's all the time. I haven't had any that went bad
or didn't work. I'm also sure when I do the BIOS updates the
mobo & supply is connected to a UPS since the electricity here
is "spastic". If the electricity cuts out during an update,
you're in bad shape. Even though it only takes a few seconds,
I can't chance it.
I thought you said you COULD see the POST info on screen, you
can get your current BIOS # from that? At any rate, if your
mobo with the latest update will only support a 1.4ghz, don't
bother. You're not going to see any difference between a 1.3
and 1.4 unless the 1.4 has more cache and a higher bus speed,
and even then it would be marginal at best. Note that AMD
CPU's do NOT display their CPU speeds in their respective model
numbers. An Athlon 2000 for example is not 2000mhz/2ghz. Also
in many BIOS updates where they mention any changes, and may
mention a CPU maximum change, they will be listed usually as
actual speed and not the AMD "name" of the CPU. Intel is not
like this. You have to go to the AMD site to get the actual
speeds, unless an AMD user here can tell you, I don't use AMD
CPU's so I don't know. That "Athlon 2000" might be 1.4ghz, so
that mobo MIGHT support your "Athlon 2000", but again like I
said above, it's not worth it unless the CPU architecture
changes a lot. Also note that with AMD CPU's, there are MANY
names. There could be an Athlon 2000 that is an MP CPU, or XP,
or even some others. Your mobo will only support specific
letters, as in, it may support the "MP" line of AMD CPU's, but
might not support the "XP line of AMD CPU's. If you're not
positive of what kind of Athlon 2000 CPU you have, on the
underside of CPU's you'll usually see the actual product code
from which an EXACT model #/line can be determined.
-Clint
God Bless
Clint Hamilton, Owner
http://OrpheusComputing.com )
----- Original Message -----
From: "Roger Carnell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Friday, March 19, 2004 7:48 AM
Subject: Re: PCWorks: BIOS Revision number
Thanks for the replies, Clint and Jorge
When i was writing that question, i was thinking "this is
really a stupid
question" !!
But honestly, i had never did or tried it before. Since the
BIOS reads the
video card ROM as one of the very first things, i thought by
chance the BIOS
could display its information without the processor. Where was
my mind???
Yes, its pretty obvious that the processor has to be there to
process the
BIOS information so it can be displayed. All I needed was to
get the very
first screen to get the revision number.
I thought, well maybe it would display that information and
then give an
error code about no processor installed. About now you're
probably thinking
i'm a nut case....some days its probably true.
I've been to the ASUS site and looked up the info for this MB.
It says i can
only install up to a 1.333 processor unless it has BIOS
revision number
1006. Then i can install a 1.4ghz. I know, very little
difference there.
This MB could be flashed to that revision number if needed but
i'm not sure
if i want to do that. My luck, something would happen and the
flash would
fail and i'd be left with some junk circuitry on a board. Have
you people
flashed alot of MB's?? Is it pretty safe with only a small
percentage of
failures? It even says on the ASUS site that your taking a
chance by doing
it. I was just hoping to know what it was before buying a
processor.
According to the site, my MB with the board version number
1.03 can
only accept a max of the 1.4ghz. If i had MB number 1.10 then i
could put
almost any processor in it. I'm using this information as my
guide. I would
like to know what the BIOS is now, if posssible. I have an
Athlon 2000
processor but didn't want to put it in there if its not
supported and have
something happen to it. I don't know if anything would happen
to it but if
the ASUS site is correct about their MB, theres no way that
this board can
support it since its version 1.03
Thanks again,
Roger Carnell
----- Original Message -----
From: "Support-OrpheusComputing.com"
You can't be serious.....right? ;-) The CPU is the "brains"
of a PC and you must have it to do anything. You must have the
CPU, memory and power supply as the bare minimum to boot up a
mobo, and of course a video card to SEE what's going on.
In your case to find out the BIOS #, it may take a few tries of
hitting the "pause/break" key to halt the POST process.
Sometimes the BIOS # is at the top of the screen right after
the BIOS logo, sometimes it's at the extreme bottom.
-Clint
----- Original Message -----
From: "Roger Carnell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Hello,
I've never tried this and don't want to damage the motherboard,
but can you
fire up a motherboard with just a video card and no processor
to see what the
BIOS revision number is? The MB is an ASUS A7A266. I would like
to know what
the BIOS is before purchasing the processor.
Thanks,
Roger Carnell
============= PCWorks Mailing List =================
Don't see your post? Check our posting guidelines &
make sure you've followed proper posting procedures,
http://pcworkers.com/rules.htm
Contact list owner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Unsubscribing and other changes: http://pcworkers.com
=====================================================
